Florida State’s final preseason tune-up brings a very different kind of test to the Tucker Center on Saturday.
After opening exhibition play with a win over Auburn, the Seminoles will host LSU at 1 p.m. ET on October 24 in Tallahassee, with the game available on ACC Network Extra through ESPN+ and the Seminole Sports Network.
Sean Salisbury and Jacob Ridenhour will be on the call. Florida State enters at 1-0 in exhibition play, while LSU is 2-0.
For Luke Loucks, this was the point of the schedule in the first place: find a game that makes his team work. Auburn already gave Florida State a look at a veteran opponent, and the Seminoles looked better for it. LSU, though, brings a different makeup into the matchup under Will Wade, who has pieced together what may be the most experienced roster in college basketball in an unusual way.
The biggest early spotlight for Florida State falls on freshman center Marcis Ponder. Against Auburn, he made a quick impression with a double-double and handled the physical battle in the paint with his 7-foot, 285-pound frame.
Junior guard Kam Taylor is the other name to watch on the Seminoles’ side, bringing size, athleticism, and slashing ability at 6-foot-7. Loucks has already called Taylor perhaps the most athletic player in Florida State history, and the Noles are expected to lean into that burst.
Sophomore forward Shon Abaev also figures to play a major role after starting 12 games for Cincinnati last season. He brings scoring, rebounding, ball-handling, and playmaking, giving Florida State another matchup problem in the lineup.
LSU’s preseason has been defined by roster construction as much as anything on the court. Wade originally went into the first exhibition against McNeese with just four officially rostered players, and the conversation around the Tigers has centered on the players he could not add.
RJ Luis Jr. was a major target, but Wade had to back off because of Luis’ NBA experience and previous contracts. Since then, LSU has filled out to a 14-man roster, and that gives the Tigers far more room to work with heading into this exhibition.
At the center of that group is fifth-year guard Donovan Dent, one of the country’s most productive passers last season. He has logged nearly all of LSU’s minutes in both exhibitions, though that workload is expected to ease now that the roster has more depth.
Another name to monitor is Skyy Clark, the fifth-year guard and former teammate of Dent who has not played yet this preseason. LSU learned two days ago that Clark is eligible this season, and he could make his preseason debut against Florida State.
He adds outside shooting and a defensive edge to the Tigers.
Mo Dioubate is another LSU player Florida State will have to account for. The senior forward spent time as a role player at Alabama and Kentucky, but his role with the Tigers may be more prominent. His strength inside could create an interesting early battle with Ponder in the paint.
In Other News...
Florida State Gets One Last Read On A Roster Still In Flux
Florida State gets one more chance to sort through its preseason pieces before the games start to count, with LSU coming to the Donald L. Tucker Center for the Seminoles final exhibition matchup. The recent win over Auburn offered an encouraging early look, and it also gave the staff another live evaluation of a roster that is still being shaped by availability and fit.
One more layer was added with forward Alex Steen now eligible to compete after a temporary injunction, giving Florida State another option as it tries to settle into a rotation. LSU, meanwhile, arrives having won both of its exhibition games and with additional players set to be eligible for the regular season, so this one should provide a useful test for a Seminoles team still trying to answer a few lingering questions before the real schedule begins. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State Keeps Running Well Despite One Alarming Problem
Florida State has found one of the few steady answers on offense in a season that has been defined more by frustration than by momentum. The running game has carried a lot of the load, with quarterback Ashton Daniels and running back Ousmane Kromah giving the Seminoles a reliable way to move the ball even as the bigger goals of the year have slipped out of reach.
The problem, of course, is that the ground game alone cannot cover for a defense that has struggled to hold up. Florida State is giving up 27.9 points and 256.3 passing yards per game, with the secondary and second-half performance emerging as the biggest concerns, and those issues have kept a team projected to finish 6-6 from looking like a true conference contender. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State Fans Know Why This Playoff Debate Suddenly Feels Familiar
Ohio States 19-15 win over Indiana came with a cost that immediately complicated the bigger picture. The Buckeyes snapped the Hoosiers 22-game winning streak, but they also lost starting quarterback Julian Sayin to an indefinite elbow injury, a development that puts fresh pressure on an offense already facing questions at the most important time of the year.
For Florida State fans, the debate around Ohio States playoff standing may sound uncomfortably familiar. A college football media voice drew comparisons to other teams in the race while noting the Buckeyes offensive issues and the challenge of what comes next on the schedule, which is exactly the sort of late-season uncertainty that can turn a strong rsum into a tense discussion in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]